A Life Among Flowering Treasures: Remembering Paul George Russell
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
April 24, 1889
Today marks the birthday of Paul George Russell, a botanical luminary born in the modest environs of Liverpool, New York. One might say he blossomed rather spectacularly from such ordinary beginnings.
In 1902, the Russell family transplanted themselves to Washington, D.C., a fortuitous relocation that would root young Paul to the capital for the remainder of his days. Like many notable specimens, he thrived best in his adopted soil.
After cultivating his mind at George Washington University, Paul secured his first position at the National Herbarium. Little did anyone suspect this initial placement would grow into a magnificent 50-year career as a government botanist. Such dedication! One might sooner expect a century plant to bloom twice.
The ambitious botanist soon found himself adventuring through northern Mexico alongside fellow plant enthusiasts Joseph Nelson Rose and Paul Carpenter Standley. How delicious to imagine these scholarly gentlemen tramping through foreign landscapes, their pockets bulging with specimen bags and their conversations thick with Latin nomenclature!
In 1910, during these Mexican expeditions, the Verbena russellii—a rather handsome woody flowering plant—was christened in Paul's honor. Not to be outdone by Mexico, Argentina later bestowed upon him the dubious distinction of having a prickly pear cactus, Opuntia russellii, bear his name. One wonders if he found this particular honor more pointed than pleasant.
Upon returning to American shores, our botanical hero played a crucial role in what must surely be counted among the most elegant of horticultural diplomatic gestures: the planting of Japanese cherry trees around Washington's Tidal Basin. As lead consulting botanist, Paul presided over this arboreal installation with all the gravity of a conductor before an orchestra.
In March 1934, he penned his magnum opus, a 72-page USDA circular magnificently titled Oriental Flowering Cherries. This comprehensive work revealed not merely cultivation practices but delved into the rich historical tapestry behind the varieties of ornamental cherries gracing American soil. One imagines him hunched over his desk, spectacles perched upon his nose, meticulously documenting each petal and pruning technique with scholarly precision.
Paul's circular, accompanied by photographs of Washington's magnificent cherry spectacle, inspired a veritable frenzy for these trees across the nation. Suddenly, every garden enthusiast with aspirations to grandeur simply had to have cherry blossoms of their own!
Throughout his illustrious career, our botanical virtuoso compiled an astonishing 40,000 seed vials. Even more remarkably, he developed the uncanny ability to identify plant species merely by examining their seeds. What a party trick that must have been! One pictures dinner guests presenting him with mysterious seeds from their pockets while Paul, with a flourish, proclaimed their botanical identities.
After his retirement, Paul embarked upon what would have surely been a fascinating history of USDA seed collection. Alas, fate had other plans. On April 3, 1963, at the respectable age of 73, he succumbed to a heart attack—just one day before he was scheduled to visit his beloved cherry blossoms in full bloom with his daughter.
How poetic, yet tragically ironic, that he should depart this earth as his cherished trees prepared for their annual spectacle. One wonders if the blossoms that year appeared particularly luminous, as if paying tribute to the man who had so championed their existence in American soil.
